247 Staying in obedience with God in your business
Podcast Summary
Do you ever set goals and feel disappointed because they don’t come to fruition or you don’t feel like you’ve achieved them and now it just feels like a bit of a disappointment to even think about setting goals or even trying something new and different? In this podcast today, I wanted to talk through the disappointment and the heartache of unreached goals and how you can learn to adapt to the pressures of business and expectations under God’s guidance.
Meet SJ!
Our CEO, Sarah Jane, first became a business owner after the purchase of her and her husband’s first property that God encouraged her to buy, which lead to Mountain Ridge Property & Development being founded in 2014.
Since then, she has completed seven renovations, started up her digital marketing business The Automation Girl in 2015, and helped thousands of women with tips to help encourage, strengthen and unite them in business under the CWIB brand that launched in 2017.
She will also soon be offering mentoring for business owners and investors while running The Christian Women Group.
Full transcript
Do you ever set goals and feel disappointed because they do not come to fruition, or you do not feel like you have achieved them and now it just feels like a little bit of a disappointment to even think about setting goals or even trying something new and different? In this podcast and video today, I wanted to talk through this, talk through the disappointment because I have been talking to a lot of different people now.
And they’ve, in a few years into their business, they have tried a few different things and the things that they have tried it has not necessarily gone how they thought it would and it is Disrupted their heart and give them fear for setting new goals. And I know I can relate to this, and I have felt it as well.
You put so much hard work into something, you think the idea has come from God, you go gun holes with it, and then what you had in your head and then what becomes… The reality does not match, and you think, well, why am I bothering with this anyway? Or why should I bother creating new goals or being in the obedience of God if it is not successful?
And so, we had our Bible study in our community a couple of weeks ago. And this very topic came up and it was a good discussion. We were touching on Ephesians 2. 20. And that talks about… How we were separate and how Jesus came. He tore down the walls and Gentiles and Jews can worship God and have access to the heavens in a united form and we are all as one through Jesus.
And then it goes on to say about how Jesus is the cornerstone and how we are to live our lives via the Spirit. And so, I was asking our members, do they run their business in as if Jesus, or is Jesus the cornerstone from where you run it from? And are you working and working by the Spirit in your business? And we had some really, good conversations. And then later in the evening, I was scrolling through Instagram, and I came across a post that was from Jordan. Now Jordan from Honey and Gold was a speaker at our conference a couple of years ago and she said, shared some beautiful golden nuggets and a little bit about her story. And she shared this quote on social media, and I just thought it is so relevant from everything that we have been talking about in that previous day and what I have been talking about with other members and other people before that. And it is when God is calling you to something, he is not always calling you to succeed. He is calling you to obey. The success of the calling is up to him.
The obedience. is up to you. And I just thought that is so interesting. I have not gone and looked at that in scripture. I have not kind of gone into it and studied it. But it reminded me about the obedience. of the journey of business, the obedience of what God has called us to do, not seeing it from a worldly eye.
And I sometimes feel like maybe I am on repeat, and I have to remind myself too, that I’m not viewing this from a worldly point of view. But I am viewing this from a Kingdom point of view. Am I being obedient to God, and obedient to the idea that he is planted? Even if it does not make sense, and even if it is not looking like it is being successful to the world’s standards.
Because we do not know what is going on behind the scenes. We do not know, in the spirit realm, unless we have been gifted. Gifted the gift to see all those amazing things that happen in the spirit. We just do not know what is happening. We do not know what is going on. We do not know what shifts are happening.
We can be vigilant with what is going on in the world and see. Things in the world, but trusting God in the spirit and from the spirit and in that obedience, just like Abraham, just like Moses you know, there’s a few Mari, one of our members brought up that, you know, she was saying that, you know, they were obedient, but they didn’t actually see the fruits of their labour in their generation or at their time.
And so, I mean, some of them did, Noah did, Moses. So, All right. It just brings it back to the question of, and the simplification again, are you being obedient to what God’s asked you to do in your calling? That is as simple as it is. And I know once you enter that space, and once you get into that kingdom mindset, and once you start operating from the Spirit, Yes, there are times of stress, but there’s also a peace about it as well, knowing that everything’s going to be okay and that God’s going to pull through.
Walking in that peace a few years ago now, we also touched on how we did build a God centred business and keeping yourself in the eye of the storm. So, Jesus is being the eye of the storm. You have got all this stuff going on around you and then there is that calm sense of peace. And that’s Jesus in the eye of the storm and keeping yourself on the eye of the storm, like keeping your eyes pinned to him, to the kingdom.
While all this madness is going around and trusting in that process. So, I want to encourage you to not let the devil keep your eyes, like, deter you, discourage you, or even just your own self thoughts. I want to encourage you to keep dreaming, to keep visualizing, to keep trusting those promptings, to keep trusting your gut feelings, to keep trusting the little golden nuggets of ideas that you get to experience from God and to still go ahead with those in the right time and asking God to guide your steps.
Because He wants you to dream. He wants you to dream with Him. He wants you to be in that obedience. And I always say, you know, it is not, God is not interested in how successful you are. Gods interested in your character and in the journey and who you become and what you experience. And how your faith grows within that journey.
If we reached success tomorrow, what would we do? Like it would be too easy. What are we going to learn from that? How are we going to grow through that? How is our faith going to grow through that? And how are we going to be putting ourselves out there and trusting God with the absolute wildest things?
Trusting him to amplify our marketing, trusting him that the finances are going to come through for paying staff. If we are selling a business, trusting him with the sale and that the right buyer comes along. If we’re property investing, trusting him with the purchase that we’re about to make and hearing him when we step into a property and asking him to guide us in the negotiation, whatever it might be he’s there, he’s just waiting for us in the obedience and then we just trust him with that.
We let go of ego. Ego, I think, is the biggest thing that hurts when we are going through this journey. I know I have had to do a lot of work with ego and where am I doing this from? Like, when I am doing something, where am I doing this from? Am I doing it from a place of ego where I want it to succeed so I do not look like a failure?
Or am I doing it from a place of… Okay God, you have asked me to do this, I am going to step in that obedience, and whatever happens, happens, and I trust you, and I do not care about what other people think. I am just staying in my own lane, I am focusing on the things that you have asked me to do, and that I know are the right direction, I can feel it in my gut.
So be encouraged, beautiful lady, be encouraged, my friend, to still dream, to still go after those goals, to still embrace the obedience and sitting in the calling God’s given you and do it from that place of peace, from Holy Spirit guidance. Allow the spirit to embrace. If you do feel that hurt and that disappointment, come up, ask God to show you what it is about that that is bringing up the hurt and bringing up the disappointment.
So, you can deal with it as well. So, you can deal with, and I believe, too, it is the ego that hurts more than anything. I am not saying we are all egoistic, and I do not mean that in a… I am wearing suits and I am egoistic all the time. No offence if you wear suits either. But more that, is it my ego that is hurting?
Is it the disappointment in how much work I have put into something, and it is not worked? Whatever it is that you have become exhausted from doing a launch or whatever it might be. So, I just want to encourage you to seek God. Stay in the obedience. He has got you where he wants you for a reason. And trust that.
All right, so it is four weeks to a conference. I am so excited. If you have not got your tickets yet, even though conference is in four weeks, tickets will actually close in two weeks’ time. So, make sure, make, make, make sure that if you are thinking about coming, that you get your tickets booked now so you do not miss the cutoff.
I am so excited. I know God. Again, back to the obedience is calling us to appear and I cannot wait to see what that looks like for each of you. We have our retreat sessions set up, we have amazing stories from women who are amid the faith building in the journey and building their businesses.
And it is so inspiring to hear their stories and how God’s worked throughout them. We have practical elements for you to add into your business that we are going to be working on through the weekend. And I just feel like it is the perfect time and excuse for you to book a weekend away for you and your business with God.
So, get your ticket. Come and join us on the Sunshine Coast on the 9th and 10th of September and I cannot wait to see you there and here is two more blessings to come as you stay in the obedience of your calling and business.